The Huntress's Dream
by Gene-Master
Summary: A summoning gone wrong, a viscious plague of beasts and the mysterious words telling her to seek the source of the plague. Will louise be able to stop the plague before too much is lost? Hunter!Louise, LouiseCentric
1. Chapter 1

Louise stood in the field, the western vestri court to be exact, she'd just completed her summoning ritual and was awaiting the results, the one thing that would prove she could use magic properly.

A pink magical circle stood where her familiar would appear, and suddenly without any warning an explosion came out of the circle. This explosion was much stronger than her usual miss-cast's.

First both of her ear drums where blasted out, blood spurting down out of her ears. Hopefully the students that stood further away had faired better. Next the blast hit her, she knew for certain that she would die. The last thing she saw was a odd lamp hanging of a stick, blue-ish smoke coming off it, standing where her summon should have been.

She was dead before she hit the ground.

* * *

A groan, she awoke lying on her back, she felt good, better than she had in a while.

Sitting up she dropped herself off the cold surgical table, taking a breath in she started walking, she needed to find someone who could tell her where she was.

She took her first step and looked around her fiendish surroundings, odd metal table's. often only found in a sanitarium, odd metal stands with bags of red liquid in them. She walked on the next room had a corpse in it, blood splattered against the wall with its head gone.

Her eye's widen in shock and she took a step back, but she wasn't afraid, no familiar rise of heartbeat in her chest whenever she read one of her favored horror novels.

She gulped, more nervous than afraid and continued on. Eager the get away from the rotting corpse.

She walked in the next room, still thinking about the corpse she didn't register this room.

Then she noticed the giant man-sized blood covered wolf being gnawing at some poor corpse.

She gasped, now fear filled her chest, apparently the wolf took note of this and lunged at her, Louise barely registered him gnawing at her throat. Then she died for the second time.

* * *

This time, she woke up standing, as If she had spaced out for a while instead of dying, and suddenly found herself standing in a completely different place.

The sky was filled with a not quite fog, White flower bushes where scattered around the place, further on the path there was a human sized doll, it lied limply.

"just where am I" she spoke to herself, no choice but to move on she walked towards the entrance of the fairly small house on top of the hill.

Then as she approached the stair's something odd happened, a bubbly mess of foam? Something came out of the floor in a pool and three little grey –things- half crawled out.

One they noticed her the began dragging handle's out of the pool, and then the rest of the weapons they held.

For some odd reason she knew the weapons by name, as if they where as common as a regular musket, though their odd shape was not.

The first had a heavy axe, the hilt wrapped in white cloth, this was the Hunters Axe, a weapon often used by the stronger hunters.

What was a hunter anyway? These where not the tools of trade used by the ordinary game hunter.

The next was a gruesome fusion between a flip blade and a grim looking cleaver, with a serrated edge. The saw cleaver, a macabre weapon.

she could only imagine the horrendous wounds inflicted by such a weapon.

And finaly the last weapon, -a canewhip- though she knew not where the 'whip' part was from. It was something that looked for all reasons like a ordinary walking stick, though upon closer inspection she noticed the staff of the walking stick had 6 edges, and the end had a small pike, like a iron fence, or an ash poker.

Or the baton's used by the feared and infamous Romanian Inquisition, though the baton's where a lot thicker, and where attached to a cross rather than a walking stick.

She looked at the eyeless grey creatues, -take one- she could almost hear them say.

She picked up the cane -it wasn't as heavy as she thought- and walked on.

Not two steps later, another patch of grey came up from the ground, these little –messengers- held up two much more familiar shapes, both some sort of musket, one pistol and the other a short rifle, perhaps even usable in one hand, there was something a little of about them both though, the outer mechanics seemed only half familiar, despite the fact mother taught her from young how to maintain a sword and gun.

Again –take one- she picked the pistol, prefer a somewhat more familiar form over the odd short musket/blunderbuss.

This too wasn't as heavy as the guns her mother thought her to use, the soft oaken grip felt good In her hand.

She walked on and into the house.

Inside was an odd workshop, saw's and other lade's hung from the ceiling, a desk cluttered with designes and a small rack of half finished weapons, and in the corner was a sleeping man, his face hidden under the hat.

She walked forewards, shaking him softly. The old man woke up "wha-oh, a new hunter" he blinked the sleep out of his eye's and used his hands to sit up straight.

"where am I old man" she asked taking a small step back and gazing, he looked at louise

"you don't know? Never mind, my name is Gehrman and my job is to teach new hunter's whatever they need.

"Huh? A hunter?"

"hm you really don't know, well I suppose you'll find it out for yourself. Just remember: you must stop the scourge at the source in order to rise the sun, and survive"

Louise frowned, gherman remained impassive "what do you mean old man?"

He grinned, just a little "oh you'll know soon enough, come now young hunter ill show you how to use those weapons"

Louise pretentiously rose her chin "I already know how to use a sword and a gun"

"yeah a regular one maybe, but not a hunter's weaponry"

Her frown deepened "what is a hunter anyway"

He grinned a little more "all in good town, and you shouldn't frown so much" a little more youth creeped into his voice.

He grabbed an identical gun from his pocket, it was hidden in his wheelchair.

"a gun is fairly simple, simply aim and shoot. a hunter's pistol however is a bit different, though aiming and shooting is still there, reloading go's a bit differently, see this trigger underneath the finger guard. It should be underneath your middle finger"

She looked down at her gun, indeed there was a small trigger underneath the finger guard, like the front letter of the R, with the handle being the spine of the letter and the finger guard the upper loop.

"if you pull it, the reloading process starts. Hunter's use quicksilver bullets shaped by magic. Not only does what you're hunting have a weakness to mercury, but each bullet has been magically tuned to the gun, the bullet hardens in the gun, and goes through the enemy, and then it slowly dissolves into the air, before returning to the gun. Go ahead try it"

she pulled the reload trigger, nothing happened.

"you'll have to fire it first, out the door please"

She aimed out the open door and pulled the trigger, the knock back wasn't as strong as she thought it would be.

"good, you line up you're arm and gun well, a natural born hunter if I ever saw one, but talent wont get you everywhere."

He grinned a little more to himself, by now he looked like a big happy kid. At least if nor for the wrinkles.

"go ahead reload"

Louise held the gun in front of her and pulled the reload trigger. The gun snapped open revealing the inner side of the barrel, some silver gas escaped out and the gun snapped shut on its own.

A short sound of a wiring gear was heard, and with a click the gun finished it's little routine.

Her frown disappeared her eyebrows lifting "amazing" she spoke breathlessly.

She looked over to the man his smile was bigger than ever, "for some reason you bring the life out of me little missy," he would have grinned some more if he could "go practice outside, bullets here dissolve extra fast, come back when you've got a decent guess for the remaining bullets"

She nodded eagerly, not completely registering the words as she went out to practice.

After a while she got a feel for the gun, having practiced shooting the top of the odd little lamppole's that stood around the place.

A number appeared in her mind -twenty- she walked back inside, "so can you guess how many bullets the gun has"

She frowned, again "twenty?" she guessed, his grin came back, seemingly permanently etched on his face.

"good you've made the bond, hunter's pistols tune themselves to their users, as a result the hunter can more easily tell how many bullets are in the gun."

he looked at the canewhip in her right hand. "as for the canwhip, well there's not much i can teach you, try pulling that small trigger on the handle later, and experiment.

His grin diminished a bit "but enough of that, you should go out, and remember: To live you must destroy the source of the infection, oh and it takes a bullet about 5 minute's to dissolve in the real world, so conserve ammo."

"what?" she managed to ask before she felt her consciousness getting sucked backwards.

* * *

 **So yeah, this was inspired by another story, however I was disappointed that it wasn't louise centric.**

 **So I tried my hand at writing one myself.**


	2. Chapter 2

Louise woke up again, much like the last time standing up like fading from one dream to another.

Now she stood in the vestry court again, however the world looked dark, horrible. A tower had collapsed and split the court in half, forming a barrier between the two sides.

The door to the alvis hall had collapsed with the masonry around it, there was only a single way out of the court.

There stood a blue lamp, in the court. Her summon supposedly

-a gate to the hunter's dream-

What was the hunters dream? Maybe the place that old man lived?

'twist the handle of your canewhip' shrugging she gave it a try, and as she did the blade of her cane slacked, splitting up into segments the cane unfolded into a painful looking serrated whip.

There where two triggers near the handle, pressing one she watched the blade slack more, the coiled wire whip stretching out, until its length resembled an actual whip rather than the sword length rope she had before. Pulling the other trigger, the one with her middle finger, she nearly dropped the blade as the wire pulled itself back in, almost explosively. Now the whip looked like some demented serrated sword, and with the lack of sharp edge it was pretty useless.

Well it could be useful if you ever need to keep it more compact.

"now how do I turn it back" she spoke, "well I guess just turn the handle back then."

She turned the handle of the canewhip again, the segments realigned again, forming back into the usual cane/beating stick.

"find the source of the scourge, that's what he said right?" she moved on. No use dawdling around.

She went in the first hall, there was a hall, the side to the right, that lead to the astronomy tower had collapsed, making it inaccessible.

She checked the door in front of her, 'click' locked. Well no other way than right then, to the central building then.

Inside there where two possible roads, to the right to the female dorms or to the left to the other entrance to the alvis hall.

"maybe I could get my wand back" she spoke to the air, as she walked up the stair's, to the first floor taking the left door, to the girl's dorm.

The second she opened the door a being came charging at her, screaming something illegible under its name. on reflex Louise aimed and shot it in the gut.

It staggered, Louise pressed the reload button and took a brief moment to inspect the 'being'

Oh god Montromercy

Same outfit, same body type, except where a face belonged she merely had a mask of white linen 'fur' of some sort, and from what she could see the 'mask' was fused to her face, the image was completed with a bloody gore splattered butcher's cleaver held in her equally stained hand.

No time to try and communicate, the being yelled something again, it sounded vaguely Latin.

The gun wasn't don yet, and as Motromercy came near with ready to gut her former classmate. Reacting on instinct Louise swung her cane, braining Motromercy in the head. She felt Montromercy's skull crack under the blow, the blonde Staggered, and halted her yell/vaguely Latin War cry as she fell to the ground.

Nonetheless, even with a hole In her skull the blonde kept going, even now she was attempting to slice Louise's ankles with her cleaver, Louise had already taken a step back. 'click' she lifted her arm and fired the freshly loaded Mercury bullet into her ex classmate's head.

That put her down.

"I should be more afraid" she mentioned to the open air, "maybe i'm just dying and this whole deal is some wild pre-death hallucination"

She shook her head "no, that's not how it work's, perhaps whatever brought me here, or did this to Montromercy is messing with my emotions?"

'sigh no use thinking about it'

She moved on, the hallway looked clear, then some other first year came charging out of the door, once she saw Louise pass by. This one was more cautious, her weapon of choice was a pitchfork, presumably liberated from the stable's.

Standard procedure, Louise wasn't even thinking as she shot the first year, in the head.

'still not dead' she took a sharp step forwards and caned the first year in the head. Once again the sound of bone splintering could be heard, the first year did drop dead this time.

Moving on Louise carefully walked over to the other side of the dorm's this time checking for any berserk ex students looking to carve her open.

She made her way to the other side of the hall, next stair went up to the second floor

'1 more to go until 3d floor' the next floor had a group of ex students, they stood around like a small gang of hooligans, rather than the dignified noble's they are- where.

'Can I sneak by? No the hall is to narrow and there's no other way. Maybe I can lure one away.'

She walked back down, perhaps there was something in the abandoned rooms she could use.

Walking in to the first room on the left she quickly flipped the place over, a small piece of lipstick, a pretty purple colour, unable to restrain herself she slipped the makeup in her skirt pocket. 'she's probably dead anyway' then finaly she find something that gave her an idea, a small pebble laid on the nightstand, made smooth by the river the pebble was certainly interesting, but nothing special. 'perhaps a gift from a friend, or family member?'

Silently walking back upwards to the second floor she stood in the open door, they hadn't noticed her yet, even though one was gazing straight in her direction with limp eye's.

Taking abreath she launched the pebble at the front most girl's head, the blow connected. And the brunet turned and began marching towards louise, after a few foot her eye's widened as she realized who had trown the pebble, the brunette brandished her armaments a simple woodcutting axe infront of her and marched up to louise. Another vaguely latin shout, much more restrained than montromercy's or the brunet first year's shout.

The other 2 had not noticed her and just stood their limply, even though one of theirs was marching off.

The brunet swung her axe, surprisingly fast, Louise sidestepped, moved around her until she was behind the girl and brained her in the head with her cane, Louise's surprisingly strong physical strength showed itself once again as this time the girl went down after a single hit.

'lucky shot?'

Internally shrugging to herself she slammed her cane into the prone girl's head once more, making Shure she was really dead.

Then she turned around, there stood the other two of the little 'posse' they noticed her now, cautiously walking towards her, completely ignoring their dead comrade. One brandished another pitchfork, the other a torch and an showy axe presumably from some random students wall decoration.

'shit' Louise thought about the whip form of her cane, 'no I haven't practiced with that.

Acting on impulse she ran forwards, just as she entered the first one's range she shot her, and immediately her cane followed after, jumping back panting Louise cursed her own horrible stamina. The other one yelled, another vaguely latin shout. Smashing her torch down louise was panefully hit on her shoulder.

Pushing forewards louise shoulder checked the other girl the pinkette's eye's clenched with tears in them. She followed up her push with a quick slash of her cane she cracked a rip of the enemy.

Finaly not letting up her attack she hit the girl with her cane one final time.

Slumping down she looked at her shoulder 'it's healed' she tried touching her shoulder only to hiss in pain as her hand touched the still sensitive flesh.

She tried to connect to her magic, she got a feeling, some sort of amount perhaps even a rough number rather than the black void she usually felt.

'later' she stood up, having regained her breath, moving on she was relieved the third floor wasn't over run in the least.

Not letting down her guard she carefully walked to her own room at the end of the hall, the rooms where empty. Where did all the students go?

When she made it 'home' she slumped down on her bed, not even half an hour of fighting and she felt exhausted.

"I need to move on" she spoke out loud to herself. Pusher herself up she began flipping through the room, her room like all other's perhaps even more so. Eventually she found a cracked picture case of her and her family, taken just before she left for school.

She took the picture out of the case, slipping it in her other skirt pocket.

"I need pants, no way I'm fighting In a skirt"

A short visit to her closet switched out her skirt for a pair of brown plain pants, with suspenders hung loose. So as to not harm her shoulder.

Then suddenly a horrible scream rung out, shrill in the air penetrating through the castle.

Looking out the window she was greeted to the sight of some sort of monstrosity.

A large human shaped creature, with wide ribbon like fur on one side and dark grey bald flesh on the other, its face some sort of mix between a man, a dog and a rat.

"how in brimir's sake did this all come about?" she questioned to herself.

"did I summon this?"


	3. Chapter 3

She gulped, that did not look nice, was that the source? Was she going to have to kill that thing.

Shaking her head she moved on, now in more comfortable pants, with her one moment of her family with her.

Deciding, that with lack of clearer purpose the best she could do now was loot the other rooms, Tabitha's room was empty, though for all intents and purposes it looked like somebody packed up and left rather than their room being searched over and looted.

'good for her'

Kirche's room had nothing, except a handful of raunchy novels, 'slag'. There was one thing though, the season was getting colder.

"brrrr"

Running back to her own room Louise picked up her winter coat, a fine leather trench coat, unladylike on most but Louise prided herself in the fact that she was one of the few who could pull it off.

Grabbing a dark red scarf she got from as a present from her mother, and a short shoulder cloak with hood. She moved on, the final room on the third floor, Montromercy's.

Thinking back on it now Louise got a little queasy, the feeling of bone splintering underneath her cane still fresh on her mind.

Walking in on Montromercy's room she noted the room wasn't nearly as overturned as the other's. on a large table was a complicated alchemy set, it was no secret that Montromercy was an accomplished alchemist, and often she sold her solutions to the student body for some extra pocket money.

On her table lied a number of formula's and alchemical blue-prints.

Louise might not have been skilled with alchemy but any retard could follow a recipe.

Eyeing the top document she read the rune's "healing solution"

'healing solution' had Montromercy managed to actually replicate a water mage's healing spell through alchemy, Sure potion's where important with healing, but actually regenerating the flesh and knitting bone together could only be done by an actual water mage.

she grabbed the document, flipped over a fallen chair and sat down.

The ingredients list was simple enough, most of these could be found all over the place or if not the academy kept them in surplus.

The final ingredient worried her though, an amount of blood was needed first, this could be any kind of blood. And then a few drops of the user's blood in order to "key" the potion to the user.

That was worrying, the church strictly forbade the use of any blood or human body parts in potions, the only exception being regrow able parts like hair or nails, and even then most of those where forbidden love potion's.

'well if im going to face of against that beast outside ill need every edge I can get.'

First she looked over the user's manual part 'Montromercy is really thorough' the blood had to be injected directly into the bloodstream,

A quick look through Montromercy's cabinet supplied Louise with plenty of reinforced glass pressure syringes.

Then once injected the potion would seek out any wounds and start healing. Well it wasn't actual healing, the potion actually created 'fake' cell's where the wound was, the fake cells would work just like normal cells however the body would still need to regrow new 'authentic' cells where the wound was, replacing the fake cells.

Warning: Although the healing solution does mend broken bones, it does not set them right, and an improperly healed bone will have to be re-broken, as such healing solution is not a viable alternative in such cases, if any bones have been broken please seek out medical attention from a trained professional.

'That make's sense' Louise thought, she began scrounging up ingredients, there was a canister labeled 'pig's blood' so that would work, enough for maybe 6-7 doses. The other ingredients where plentiful, surplus even, the solution only used about 3 ingredients which where used in the most basic of potion's. Louise wondered why nobody found this solution in the past.

She began the procedure, a few quick steps and the solution was left to simmer for 10 minute's.

Taking this time to rest a little Louise, picked a novel on Montromercy's bookshelf, some inane fairy tale about a knight and a princess.

Unable to really get into the book she picked another, a historic book, about the war of ancient Romania and ancient Gallia. A mix between fact and fiction, the book described the events how historians documented it, but also quoted several epic's that had been written about the war, and tried to link these tales of legend to any possible real-life generals or soldiers.

It was interesting enough to suck up Louise's attention, the timer she set went off just as she finished the first chapter.

Signing she placed the book on the shelf and went over to the alchemy table.

Ok now you just have to distill it, and mix the residue with a strong alcohol, like the germanian jenever* placed on the counter, let's just hope that she had that bottle for this reason and that Montromercy wasn't secretly an alcoholic shall we, and finally boil the solution to burn out the alcohol. Since the alcohol was only used to 'activate' the residue, it's not needed afterwards, and since not getting drunk off healing potions sounds like a good idea.

Well lets.

Once done you simply bottle the solution in the reinforced glass pressure syringe, and when in need simply inject the solution anywhere in the body, and let you're heartbeat do the rest in spreading the medicine.

The next floor yielded nothing, except a single student who was quickly disposed off with a solid bash to the head.

Moving on Louise decided to try and see if she could find anything in the alviss hall.

3 stairs down Louise stood in the middle of the schools giant fancy cafeteria, the table's had been shoved to the sides, the only doors that weren't boarded up where the one to the kitchen's, and the one that lead to the northern court, where that giant beast was.

The room was also populated with 3 more students, one with a pitchfork, one with an axe, and a torch in the other hand.

The third one was the most frightening as it held a musket, probably looted off of some guard.

Louise didn't want to get another pebble so she sprinted forwards, immediately regretting her decision not even a second later.

Nonetheless they had already seen her so she was committed to this plan of attack.

She shot the musket wielding student first, having to sprint around the other 2 she booked into him, stopping only a moment to smash in brain's in. That one moment was enough as she felt an axe plunge itself into her back, it was vertical and luckily slipped through her ribs, otherwise she'd be stuck with a broken rib. Twirling around she decked him in the head with her cane

'fuck I need to remember to reload'

She pressed her reload trigger and jumped back, just as the other student struck with his pitchfork.

"screw it" Louise said, the twisted the handle of her cane until it was in its whip form.

holding it above her head with one hand she smashed it down while simultaneously relaxing the whip.

The blade's lodged themselves in the remaining students head, Louise squeezed the 'tighten' trigger, and the blade scraped itself out of his head as it reformed into its more compact form, the spikes of the whip neatly folded together.

Looking at her work she saw the student slump to his knees, his head torn in 2 by the saw motion of the whip retracting.

Grimacing in disgust she moved on to the kitchen, with no interest in confronting whatever beast was outside.

Inside the kitchen was a single student, he was taken care of with a single lunge as the back of his skull was caved in by Louise's attack, he was dead before he noticed her.

There were 2 doors, one leading towards the outside 'pull-click' which was closed, and one which led to the store-room.

'pull-click' "go away!" a female voice jelled.

Louise blinked in surprise "is somebody in there" she asked, the voice was silent for a little before responding.

"you're not one of those things are you?"

"well although I am a former student I am not here to eat your face, or whatever they do"

A sign of relief was heard, and the door unlocked.

Opening the door a black haired maid quickly pulled Louise in and locked the door.

"what's going on?" louise asked,

"you don't know"

"know what"

"this infection, the whole deal started in germania but since then its spread itself across the world, even the elves' probably have problems with it." The maid said "how did you survive out there for so long"

"eh, wits I guess, I'm stronger than I look. I's there anywhere safe I can bring you to."

The maid shuffled a little "well me and some other survivors have been holed up in the city hall of westminnister town." She gulped a little, "our food was running out, and I mentioned the academy probably still had fully stocked storage rooms, problem was the cleric beast, that's the thing outside, was preventing us from moving around outside, so we drew straws and I came out short, the plan was that I would take a horse and head here as fast as I can and slip out the back entrance, hopefully the cleric beast couldn't keep up." she took a shaky breath, "that didn't work out, I got her just fine, but as it turns out there's only one exit out that still works is the gates, so now I'm stuck here. While my friends are starving at home."

Biting her lip Louise blurted it out before she lost courage.

"you stay here, ill go kill it and we can leave then."

Her eye's widen, "no! don't you'll get yourself killed" she grabbed Louise by the arm.

Louise held the maid by both shoulders "what's your name"

She flushed a little, having forgotten to introduce herself. "my name is Siesta, Siesta of tarbés"

Louise smiled comfortingly, channeling her inner cattleya "well Siesta of Tarbés, my name is Louise de Blanc de la Valliere, tough you can simply call me louise"

"ok Louise, but you can't go out and fight that thing! You'll die!"

The pinkette grinned a little cockily "don't worry about me, I doubt some filthy mongrel can kill a strong huntress of beast's like me" she patted siesta on the head, "so don't worry your pretty little head, besides I have a trump card up my sleeve anyway"

She turned away and opened the door, looking back at siesta one last time she spoke "don't worry ill be fine, just stay here while I go kill that thing" she closed the door.

2 steps later the she let out a shaky breath, keeping up a brave face isn't as easy as you think.

'oh god I'm going to have to fight that thing, and its going to hurt like a bitch'

She walked to the alvis hall standing in front of the door that may or may not lead to her imminent death.

* * *

 **So yeah that's about it**

 **So as for the * jenever is a Dutch drink with roughly the same alcohol percentage as vodka, I originally wanted to use vodka for Louise's blood vials however there is no Russian equivalent in FoZ, and since the Netherlands are nearby to Germany I decided to use jenever, it is a sort of malt-wine made of grain, and in the distilling process juniper is added for taste.**


	4. Chapter 4

Louise gulped "you can do this Vallière" she took a deep breath, 'just grasp the knob, and go from there'

She reached out, grabbed the knob, twist and click. Taking one final breath she threw the door open.

There stood the beast, even larger than she thought it would be. Its head was thin covered in pale white tightly stretched skin, resembling a malnourished rat, the left side of his face was covered in white bandage like fur, only a single eye was visible. The rest of its body was some demented retardation of a human, with to long limbs, his ribcage visible, the left arm and leg covered In the same bandage like fur.

'it probably can't fit through the door.'

"I can take advantage of that, assuming it doesn't regenerate faster than I can shoot it." She aimed her gun and pulled the trigger, pressing the reload button immediately after.

The beast felt the bullet hit its skull, barely breaking the skin. It looked towards Louise then it charged at the pinkette in some half crouch.

It rammed straight through the masonry.

"FUCK!" Louise yelled as she turned and sprinted trying to get some room between it and her.

She sprinted a few seconds then heard a pound behind her *click* she stopped turned and came face to face with the beast, its one visible feral eye glaring at her.

'its so close, if I was half a second to slow I would have been crushed' she stood paralyzed for a split second. Then she lifted her gun and fired straight into its eye, it flinched back "HGRYAAAAA!" the sound that split from its throat sounded like a whole crowd of dying beast's. it lowered itself again, once more looking close in her face, where one eye was crushed two more, one above and one below, had opened.

She expected a click, there was none 'shit forgot to reload' she swung her cane, the blunt object barely bruising the thin layer of skin over its thick skull.

Remembering to press the reload button she jumped back, but not far enough as one of its claws carved a large gouge in her chest. Luckily it only scratched a rib, but hadn't broken anything.

'I'm gonna die aren't I,'

The beast leaned forwards, some demented growl rolling between its clenched teeth and pulled back lips.

'o right the healing solution.'

She swung her cane once more, this time managing to break the skin and dent the skull. She turned and ran, the wound slowing her down but not as much as she would have thought.

'crap wall' unable to turn her momentum she twisted her body and booked into it with her shoulder.

"Crap!" "HRYAAAAGH!" She saw the beast charge at her from the corner of her sight, she ran to the right along the wall as fast as she could. Managing to barely escape the range of its attack, the beast was stunned for a few seconds, it's head hitting the wall first 'dumb beast'.

She held her pistol with her right hand, reaching for one of her pressure injectors. Adrenalin fueled she jabbed the needle in her leg, through the cloth of her pants.

She felt her wounds heal immediately, the skin on her chest was paler than the rest of her fair skin.

She turned around, putting her gun back where it belonged she noticed the beast was finaly coming back into focus, just as it was about to swipe at her she fired a bullet at its head, nearly hitting another eye. Nonetheless the beast flinched, interrupting its attack.

She capitalized by getting in close 'its skull is to this so I'll have to try something else' she pierced her cane into its throat, the whole rod going in up to the hilt. twisting the handle the cane turned into its whip form while inside, and then Louise _pulled_ it took more strength than she knew she had, but the barbed edge of the whip painfully sawed open nearly half its neck, one of its most important arteries bleeding masses.

This time the beast didn't scream this time, perhaps she damaged its vocal cords? One hand covered its throat wound.

*click* huh, she didn't even notice pressing the reload button.

Then its truck again, its hand impossibly fast, like a spear its claws pierced through her stomach nearly bifurcating her.

She couldn't feel her legs, and o god the pain

Then Louise died. Again.

* * *

"Greetings fair hunter." She once more stood in the place where she met the old man Gehrman.

This time around the odd doll stood straight, it talked too, assuming the voice she just heard belonged to the doll.

"who are you" Louise asked, somewhat suspiciously.

The dolls expression remained neutral. "I am the plain doll, I offer my services to the many hunters and huntress's before you, and now I offer my services to you." She bowed slightly, before standing straight and impassive once more.

Louise lifted a brow "what _can_ you do?"

"I can reinforce your body and spirit, using the blood echoes you have collected from re-killing the infected host's"

Louise looked pensive for a while "I died"

"you did" the doll remained forever impassive as she spoke

"aren't the dead supposed to stay dead"

The doll tilted its head ever so slightly "but that is a hunter's greatest boon, no matter how many times they are killed, they will never perish until their duty is complete, and even then some hunter's choose to refuse death long after their sacred quest has ended"

"my sacred quest huh" Louise was silent for a little while longer. "what is this 'source' anyway, some kind of portal to hell?"

"you will know what it is once you meet it"

*pfff* "well whatever, you said something about reinforcing my body and spirit."

"yes, I can increase your constitution, make you stronger, empower your magic, and even increase your skill with a weapon"

"improve my magic! What do you mean"

The doll looked _almost_ surprised by Louise's enthusiasm. "the ritual increases the quality of your blood, and empowers your spirit, which in turn increases the effectiveness of your spells. Once you gain more insight and find the proper relics you will know how to cast them"

Louise nodded, still exited but more restrained, she could do _magic_ , or at least would learn to do so.

"you said something about reinforcing my body and spirit, how does that work" she inquired.

"I will use the blood echoes you have gathered to enhance your body and empower your spirit. This is a hunters second most powerful boon"

"I'm going to have to fight that thing again aren't I" she let out another sign, more tired than scared.

The doll didn't know what Louise was talking about, but considering what hunter usually face "yes presumably, unless there is a way around"

"thought so, so speaking of reinforcement, do you think I've got enough blood echo's to get a little beefier, I could use extra strength against that thing, besides I don't think a little extra muscle mass would hurt my looks" she said, half grinning towards the end.

"well I can reinforce you if you wish, however I can only enhance you as a whole, if I improved only a single aspect the rest would suffer." *1 the doll remained impassive as it explained, its odd accent only now making itself known to Louise.

"can you do so now" the doll nodded impassively,

"lend me your hand, good, now close your eyes"

White consumed Louise's vision and she felt something drain out of her, when the plain doll let go of Louise's hand she stood up, a warm feeling filling her.

"now go hunter, you mustn't dawdle"

Louise nodded, and turned, walking towards the gravestone that had a lamp in front of it, said lamp also being clutched by more little grey messengers.

She kneeled, reaching out for the lamp and her world faded to black.

* * *

When she awoke again, she stood once more in the court of the academy. Cautiously she moved on, finding the entrance still held the corpse of her first victim *2

Moving on she found the rest of her kills where also dead, and why wouldn't they be.

She chuckled at her own stupidity.

Moving on she stood in front of the door that would lead into the alvis hall, to where the beast now stood.

'well if I die again ill just return to the hunters dream, so there's nothing to fear right'

Taking a deep breath she once more burst through the door, it stood there all its wounds now healed.

Within swiping range it swung at Louise with its foot long claw, Louise fired her gun into its eye just before it could build momentum. The beast flinched back and Louise moved forwards, stabbing her cane into its eye handle deep she pulled the same trick as before, now tearing a gore clogged whip out of its head and presumably its brain, "ghryaaaa" its yell was more subdued now, but despite having a giant freaking hole in its brain it continued to attack, though in a clumsier manner.

*click* just in time, Louise fired the freshly reloaded bullet into its other eye, just as it was about to pounce.

Repeating the same trick again, this time going for the throat like original she saw the beast drop limply to the floor, spastically clutching the neck wound that nearly decapitated him. Then finally it died, leaving a giant puddle of red, a blood covered Louise, and a rather large amount of 'blood echo's.

Then to add a cherry on top it exploded, showering the area with gore and a literal rain of blood.

"hugh that was easier than I thought it would be." Louise moved on to the kitchen, eager to tell siesta the good news.

Once there she knocked on the door, which burst open as siesta bashed Louise over the head with a frying pan.

"OW What the hell!" she half yelled.

"your alive!" she heard the pan fall to the floor and siesta wrap her arms out Louise in a bear hug.

Then she let go looking Louise in the eye "wait how are you alive? I could hear him run you through on those massive claws from here."

Louise smiled a little sheepishly "it's a long story"

* * *

 **So yeah, new chapter, I decided that leveling up increased all stats little by little, in order to keep things simple. And for the sake of plot progression enemies don't respawn, but blood echoes aren't lost after death either.**

 **As for insight, well its kind of like knowledge is shoved into a human brain that wasn't meant to be processed by a human brain, but its actual use is more like this:**

 **1look at abstract painting, you don't understand crap right.  
2 read book about abstract painting symbolism  
3 now all the weird sh*t make's sense.**

 **Insight is kind of like that book, however for the sake of conserving its own sanity, the human brain completely blocks out any information that originate's from the source of the infection. Insight allows the human brain to better understand these things without actualy giving it any knowledge.**

 **As such if you don't have enough insight to understand something its just completely invisible to you, such as ghost's the whispers of the dead, and certain monsters. Note that insight allows Louise to do extra damage to certain enemies, as well as grant her a limited protection from magic that monster's use.**

 **There are three ways to get insight: 1 seeing a boss for the first time, 2 killing a boss and 3 crushing a 'madknowledge' skull**

 **Louise doesn't notice it when she gets more insight, and as for madknowledge, well my logic is any human that dies whilst it has insight in its brain decays at a retardedly stupid pace, until only the skull is left, certain monsters (such as carrion crows) are attracted to these skulls, and crushing them will give Louise a tip or info about a secret stash of items/weapons, this works as incentive for Louise to get these skulls, whilst also loading her brain up with insight.**

 **Note the knowledge gained from madknowledge, and the insight itself are completely separate.**


	5. Chapter 5

"your alive!" she heard the pan fall to the floor and siesta wrap her arms out Louise in a bear hug.

Then she let go looking Louise in the eye "wait how are you alive? I could hear him run you through on those massive claws from here."

Louise smiled a little sheepishly "it's a long story"

"then explain, we have the time" Siesta looked into Louise's eye, curious and unusually intense.

The pink haired noble gulped "I er, well short version is I died during my summoning, but I was apparently turned into a hunter, and now I am charged with defeating the source of the infection. Which is presumably the reason the student body around here has decided axes and murder where in fashion." 'hehe' Louise let out a little awkward chuckle. "and for some reason a hunter is resurrected each time he is killed, at least until he defeats the source. Whatever it is."

"and now you're going too…" siesta asked, some of her curiosity sated. "Wait actually! How is that even possible, being resurrected from the dead that is" a slight tinge of accent slipped out at the latter part of the sentence, siesta hadn't appeared to notice.

"uh well, the only people" 'is the doll even a person' "who might know refuse to tell me, seeming adamant on me finding out for myself. And as for the resurrection thing, I er, Didn't ask." The maid seemed to bring out Louise's socially awkward side.

"so what where you here to do" asked the huntress.

"well, like I said I was sent here to gather supplies, and well, the beast trapped me inside the academy, and then you showed up. There's not much more to the story than that."

Louise nodded, then frowned "wait they just sent you, an maid with no fighting or survival skills, to get food without protection"

Siesta shrugged "to be fair, the only people that survived and aren't disabled are me and mister marteau, and since he's the only one that can ward the beast's off, they sent me out."

"ah, wait didn't you just draw straws" Louise asked.

"well basically, but it was more of a coin toss between me and marteau, since one of us needed to stay behind to take care of the other's"

Louise shook her head "let's just go ok, it's getting pretty late, I think" siesta nodded.

They walked over to the stables, Louise disposing of another ex-student, and siesta carrying a travel bag of food over her shoulder, as well as a fully loaded horse pack, "you need any help with that?"

"nah im stronger than I look, besides you might need to fight, and it's only a short walk"

Once there siesta dropped the bags on the ground, "fuuuu"

"let me help you with that." Louise spoke, attaching the (very heavy) bags of food to the sides of the only remaining horse, attaching a bag of horse feed alongside it they saddled up.

"you sit behind me, if something comes up I can shoot it better from here."

And then they journey to the nearby town.

And they made it just before nightfall. "leave the horse, the plagued don't bother most animals."

Louise nodded, and they walked on. Through the alleyways into the court of some cathedral, inside stood another infected, or presumably. He was tall, possibly 230 cm, his entire form covered in a cream trench coat, with a hat and some white mask covering his face. His only weapon appeared to be some sort of cane.

Deciding to shoot first she quickly walked forwards, she swung her cane at its head, barely managing to hit it due to its size it didn't seem very effected, he swung his own cane in a downwards stroke which was quickly sidestepped, she fired a shot in his head from the side, staggering him enough for Louise to plunge her cane in his chest and between his ribs, his heart now thoroughly impaled she pulled back and swung another strike against its head, this time cracking the mask.

He staggered, Louise not letting up shot a quick jab against his face, breaking through his cracked mask and into his skull.

Another man appeared, this one much more active, running towards Louise the beast it swung wide before she could fire her shot, hitting Louise in the head, the pinkette was stunned, but managed to fire her shot in its general direction before it could follow up.

The door to the cathedral opened and a man walked out, using a torn out lantern pole as a makeshift spear.

He saw the beast, a stunned Louise and a nervous siesta standing in the distance. Reacting quickly he ran forwards and impaled the tallman, two pongs on the side of the pole preventing the spear from sinking in deeper, causing the tallman to stagger backwards, as the pole worked like a prod pushing him back, until he was pressed against the wall of the courtyard. The tallman now trying to push the polearm back, the other man looked like he was seriously struggling now.

Louise came out of her shock, and walked towards the tallman "let me" she spoke as she walked forwards, and smashed the tallman's head , with a final blow, now properly mushed the tallman dropped like a marionette with its strings cut. The other man let out a sign of relief as he pulled his polearm back.

Louise took the time to properly inspect the other man, he was fairly tall, about 180 or so, with big burly muscle's and tanned germanian skin, though his facial features resembled gallian commoners more so than germanian commoners. He was dressed in a dirty chef's suit, minus the hat which no longer covered his light brown hair, his 'weapon' looked like a short streetlamp ripped out of the ground, with the lamp part removed, and the end sharpened into a spike, the decorative prongs underneath the lamp now functioning as a pseudo guard, to prevent the victim from sinking to close to the base or getting stuck on the blade.

Louise did a little gentleman's bow "good evening, I am Louise and I presume you have met my companion siesta before."

He nodded and looked over to the maid "siesta" the ravenette dropped the bags of food and rushed over to marteau, hugging him almost like a small child would a parent.

"marteau, I feel like I haven't seen you since forever."

"and who are you stranger, you don't look familiar." He asked, is voice suspicious but thankful.

Louise smiled "my name is Louise de blanc de la Valliér, I believe we have met before chef marteau."

His eye's widen "by the founder you've changed" he shook his head as if he remembered something " let's get inside before more of those things show up." Louise nodded and the trio walked inside.

Inside was filled with giant pots, little wicks coming out of the lids, the air was thick with incense and ritually scented candles. a few people sat anxiously. A girl, brown hair and a noblewoman's dress. The other man a fisher, sleeping in the corner.

Siesta walked over to another room with the bags of food "I'll drop the food in the kitchen" marteau nodded and began introducing the people "here is little Georgie, she's sick at the moment. The fisherman over there is chronically ill, he can't walk more than a 2 steps before falling, and there's a priest upstairs, he tends to the incense that wards off the beast's, there's really not more to it than that. Oh and im marteau, and you are of course free to stay as long as you like."

Louise nodded "thanks, but I have to get going, there's something I have to find."

The chef frowned "there's dozens of monsters out there, it's a death wish to go out."

Louise nodded again "I know but I have to find something important, I'd like to stay but I cant"

he let out a sign and muttered something to himself "very well, but here take this, I don't know if it will work but it's all I can do to help." He walked over to a cabinet and pulled out 3 beer bottles, "here, some nut job in a workshop on the other side of town was handing these out before all this crap went down, tastes like crap but the beast's seem to love the stuff, they'll ignore a sword to the head to get this stuff." He handed her the bottles.

Louise nodded "thank you, and what about the workshop?"

He walked over to the cathedral window, and pointed to a large 4 floor building in the distance, "that over there, it's not actually a workshop, but the town blacksmith as well as a noble alchemist and a few other of our best craftsmen live there." He looked back to Louise "might be worth checking out, of you ever swing by, though don't stick your neck out unnecessarily"

Louise now shook her head "nah, I'll err on the side of caution," she smiled "besides I'm tough, and I heal fast, look the bruise from that guy's club is already gone." Her expression turned slightly grim "so how did the infection start, where did it come from"

The chef looked a little somber as well, "as far as I know, the whole thing came from the north, could be Germania, could be Gallia, somewhere around there, who knows, the guard didn't last very long, there's beast's out at night that could crush most men in an instant, luckily they sleep during the day." He turned to Louise "speaking of night, I know you need to keep on the road or whatever, but please stay here for a while, at least until the sun rises, its safe, and however strong you are you can't face what walks around at night here."

Louise nodded "I'll stay, besides I need to clean my weapons anyway, before the blood gets to dry."

He smiled, like a man who hand smiled in while "good to hear little lady."

Louise narrowed her eye's pouting like a child "im not little"

She stayed the night, got better introduced with the other people, and then prepared to leave again tomorrow.

 **so yeah, a little later, but don't worry I would have released this yesterday, but I started writing a little to late.**

 **So some more info about my story.**

 **Take note even though my story is a crossover with bloodborne, some of the lore has been changed as well as the gameplay, so what you learnt in bloodborne (lore wise) might not be applicable here.**

 **Well a little info for you fans.**

 **There are 3 types of enemies in my story.**

 **Beast: animals or humans who have been heavily mutated by the plague.**

 **Kin: humans who have only minorly been mutated by the plague, they retain there skills but their intelegence and perceptiveness is severely limited.**

 **Hunter-type's : in certain humans the plague is affected extra strong, and these humans retain their intelligence and perceptiveness and are physically enhanced, they learn to use weapons that are similar to hunters. However just like all beast's and kin they constantly try to spread the plague.**

 **There are also of course certain enemies who don't fit any of these criteria. But they will be the exception. Not the rule.**


	6. Chapter 6

Then when finally the sun rose Louise awoke, having spent the evening chatting with siesta, and Jessica the pinkette was well rested and ready to go.

The fisherman spent most of his time sleeping, kept to himself and only ate a small meal.

The priest came down and introduced himself, but excused himself after dinner claiming he had work to do upstairs.

And now it was time to move on and keep hunting, at least, after Louise lighted the blue smoke-lamp found in the courtyard.

Stepping out the courtyard, she saw one of the tallman standing there, holding his cane looking to the distance, he hadn't seen her yet. Louise noticed the mask that covered his head, only covered face and the sides of his head, there was a bit of a gap behind where his head could be seen.

After a few seconds of hesitation Louise sprinted forwards and before he could turn she shoved her cane into the gap, the metal rod going through the skull into the brains.

It turned around his motor controls limited, his moves where sluggish and slow, Louise having pulled her cane back, immediately threw a swing at his face, the blow didn't do any immediate damage but did splinter the tallman's white mask and staggered him backwards.

She heard footsteps, turning her head she looked in dread as another tallman came half-sprinting towards her.

She turned back to the first tallman and swung her cane again, this time going through the splintered mask, and then trashing the frail cranium underneath.

Immediately after she threw herself to the left, landing in an awkward roll she turned to face the second tallman, just as it was about to attack again Louise fired her bullet, capitalizing on this attack she pierced his chest, turned her cane into a whip once more and pulled out, immediately afterwards turning it back into its cane form.

The tallman lost balance and fell back, Louise jumped forwards and smashed her cane into its face twice over, first cracking the mask and then cracking the skull.

Letting out a puff Louise took a moment to regain her stamina, and moved on.

A short walk up an urban staircase ended up with Louise hiding behind a gravestone, as a giant being walked by, clad in a pale grey over cloak and equipped with a truly massive axe, giving off the air of a gravedigger, if not for the lack of shovel. 'eh screw it, if I die ill just resurrect, and who knows maybe I'll beat it and not waste time sneaking by it.'

Steeling her nerves Louise walked cautiously toward the gravegiant. Yeah that's what their called now.

The being noticed her, turning slowly it hoisted its great axe, and swung down, Louise quickly sidestepped to the right, however the being managed to change the course of its swing mid swing, though it still missed it went to prove the tremendous strength these things had.

A quick step forwards Louise swung her cane into its right leg. its head being far too high to hit. She felt the bone splinter but not fraction or break to any real damage.

The being swung its axe again, faster than Louise expected, though she barely managed to jump between its leg's, turning around she once again swung her cane into its right leg, managing to fracture the bone now, one more swing and it would have been done for.

Then Louise died, the being once more swung its axe, but the positioning of its legs and the reach of its weapon prevented Louise from properly dodging away. Luckily she was dead on the first strike,

* * *

Louise once more woke up in the hunter's dream, now quite used to the feeling of dying and kind of suspicious why all this death wasn't having a negative effect on her psyche.

Then again, she was pretty much designed to survive dyeing quite a bit, if the plain doll was right at least. She briskly walked over to the plain doll, "could you enhance my body and spirit once more." She asked, the doll nodded and Louise sunk to her knees.

After the invigorating experience Louise walked up to the little house on the hill.

"hey old man, you know where I can get some better weapons. Cause I can really use something, better than this old cane."

He was half asleep again, but looked up at louise "old cane huh, well I know a way to get you some weapons. You see there were obviously hunter's before you, back during earlier uprisings of the plague, theyre long dead and vanished into obscurity but the weird thing is sometimes the infection takes over a human and mimics these hunters. If you can kill these you can probably just take their weapons for yourself, and if you bring back their badge the messengers might reward you with a blueprint of the weapons their old master's used."

"wait you said the infection replicated old hunters, so how come these replica's have hunter's badge's, and why don't I have one?"

He looked at her a little puzzled "actualy, I don't know, all I know about the world out there is the basics, and what the hunters who visit here tell me. As for why you don't have a badge, I don't know, if you want you can make one, there's a small smithy out back, with some jewelers silver and other metals. Go ahead if you want." He sounded annoyed at the end.

She huffed, "fine" and walked out back, towards the 'small' smithy, considering the 'anvil' was about the size of her fist, there was a bucket of clay for the molds, water to cool the metal, as well as a few small bars of various metals, some pre-made trinkets and some little nails.

Deciding to keep things simple, she used some wood blocks to make the mold, in clay, lit the fire's and bellowed at a ceramic pot with a few bars of iron in it.

she poured the mix into the mold, cooled it, and started chiseling into the surface with a piece of steel and a nail as a makeshift hammer and chisel. Finally she attached a small plate of brass with two small silver nails to make a makeshift clip so that it could be attached to a belt or coat.

"there" she held up the badge, a metal plate about 4 cm wide and 7 cm long, a cm thick, with a simple circle, on the top half, Louise's full name written below in fancy cursive.

The second she pinned it on her belt, on the front a little to the right, she _felt_ the 'item's' name register in her head -Noble Huntress's Badge-

"well its appropriate." She spoke with pride as she began walking back to the gravestone, but was interrupted on the way there.

"huntress are you well, I heard you speak to yourself behind the house" the plain doll inquired, a little concern filled her eyes but her face remained neutral.

Louise blushed "ehehe, it's nothing, just a habit nothing more." She excused herself and walked back to the gravestone, that would return her to the cathedral court.

* * *

She stood once more in the court, briskly walking back to where the gravegiant stood.

Once there she let out a (embarrassingly) manly yell to attract its attention. "Ghraaah!"

The being noticed her and once hoisted its axe to strike again, only for a bullet to find its way into his eye, just before he started his strike. He barely held on as he staggered, Louise capitalizing on the mistake quickly struck him twice in the shin, she felt the leg fracture but not quite break. She then dodged back, as it swung its axe once more, barely missing her by a fraction.

she ran forwards and struck its shin again, breaking the leg and causing him to fall down, she jumped over its main body, and began brought down a strike on its face cracking an the skull but not nearly going through it, only for it to strike at her again now holding its axe near the head.

"SHIT" she managed to barely dodge, and poked out the other, eye. Now thoroughly blinded the gravegiant swung its other arm in her direction, it hit her square in the chest, launching her across the street, she nearly broke her spine as she collided with the brick wall. She painfully climbed back up, and limped over to its head, it now lay on the floor, axe hand lying limply the other hand clutching over its poked out eyes. On the way there she injected herself with another healing solution. once she stood behind him, she hoisted her own cane up and brought it down with as much force as she could, the charged blow breaking clear through the fractured skull, killing it instantly.

Her own wound didn't ache any more.

She moved on down the street, she encountered a human, presumably male dressed a soldiers getup, a plague-doctors mask and a raggedy black cloak, with signs of charring and tearing at the edges.

It held a hand-axe in one hand, and an short blunderbuss in the other hand, the gun was a perfect copy of the one the messengers offered her, along with the pistol she herself had.

It lifted its gun up towards her, and fired, a dozen small pellets fired out the gun, impacting with her face, blowing out one of her eye's. he jumped forwards before she could react

Damn he was so fast.

He pushed her, causing her to fall back to the floor. The last thing she saw was the blunt, hand axe heading for her face.

She died just as the dull blade of the weapon split her skull in the middle.

* * *

 **So yeah, chapter 6, so a little info: all hunters get their badge** _ **somehow**_ **, call it fate.**

 **The plague remembers hunters It fought before, and each time the plague rises again, it sometimes re-create's previous hunters, this is done when a 'compatible' human is infected, hunter-types are hard wired with the knowledge and desire to re-create the imitated hunter's weapons, fight style, and badge. Though there actual appearance isn't actually altered from the non-infected human they were before, some of them even talk. (though they usual consider themselves the hunter, not the human they were before)**

 **The messengers will trade blueprints in exchange for nostalgic badges. The badge's are, to them, mementos of previous hunters. These blueprints are usually items (like fire-paper, sharp-blood potions, or sometimes just weapons). All weapons Louise finds are looted, found, or created by herself, there is no "shop" so to say.**

 **So after she beats this hunter she'll have the hunter's axe and the shotgun (or whatever its called, ill wiki it later). These are heavier weapons which perfectly complement Louise's more light and nimble, cane whip and pistol.**


	7. Chapter 7

"oh he is getting it now!" Louise thought furiously.

* * *

After quickly leveling up, she returned to the cathedral ward and ran up to the hunters, taking a short rest just around the corner from him.

She turned around "FUCK YOU!" she yelled, firing a bullet into its face and walking forwards.

It noticed her and dodged before looking at her, the bullet missed and he drew his weapons, expanding his axe into a double axe he did a wide sweep, Louise dodging it by virtue of stopping her sprint short, in record time the infected hunter folded his axe and whipped out his gun, firing pellets into Louise, luckily she managed to dodge to the right, limiting the damage to her left arm.

Louise swung her cane 'I need to learn how to use whip-mode' clocking him on the shoulder and hopefully dislocating it.

He took a sudden step forwards and swung with his hand-axe 'nope not dislocated', he managed to hit her in the chest, cleaving deeply into her chest, luckily missing anything vital (at least to a hunter).

Louise heard a click and lifted her gun into his face, pulling the trigger instantly, the bullet going into its eye.

He staggered from the impact and Louise walked around him and took a healing vial just before he stood up.

Once he regained his footing Louise swung her cane, beating him straight against the back of his head, the blow staggered him but didn't crack or even chip the bone.

'frikin zombie's' she shoved the cane into his back handle deep, and pulled the same old trick of tearing it out in its whip-form.

This time it broke out of its 'stun-lock' swinging its hand-axe wide as he turned around, barely missing Louise. She pulled her gun into its face and fired again, however it was to late as his body had already committed to the move, the overhead swing of its now two-handed axe gouging a nasty cleave into her chest, she jumped back and struck herself with another healing vial.

'at this rate I'll run out.'

She struck another blow at its head, before it could attack again, though the blow bounced of its skull she could feel the bone slowly giving way, 'just a few more hits'.

He pulled his gun on her again, this time she did manage to dodge properly. She countered the attack with another swing to the head, this time she was _certain_ she felt bone crack, two more and she could finally crush that ugly fucking skull of his.

He swung his hand-axe, overhead this time, Louise easily sidestepped and swung at its head, a crack was heard as she finally managed to fracture his skull.

Not letting up she swung her cane once more splintering his cracked and broken skull, still he lived on despite having a hole in his head. Louise finished him off with a pistol blast to the face before he could retaliate with some sort of lucky shot.

The plague-doctor imitating hunter dropped to the ground limply.

Louise took seat on a nearby bench, "thank god, I thought I was going to die at least once more before I beat this guy." She looked down at the recently re-deceased "then again I somehow managed to kill everything that killed me on the second try, maybe two's my lucky number."

She took a moment to regain her breath, and began looting the hunter-type. She pulled off his belt first, taking the holster's off and attaching them to her own belt, she picked up his –hunter's blunderbuss- 'so it is a blunderbuss' and sheathed it in her newly acquired second gun holster, she'd have time to practice with it later, Likewise she picked up his axe and sheathed it.

She rifled through his jacket and found his badge, a cross shaped clip, a circle and an axe on it, No name.

Looking over to the sun Louise noted it was getting late, "pfhew, time sure go's fast when you're having 'fun'"

She walked back to the cathedral, deciding to visit the hunter's dream before she went inside and spent another night with the inhabitants, she walked over to the lamp and kneeled down

* * *

After a quick reinforcement and a little idle chat with the plain doll (whom inquired about the new weaponry Louise was wearing.) Louise walked on towards the little house on the hill, just before she went inside a messenger appeared before her, looking up at her curiously.

Well memento's right.

She pulled the badge from her inner pocket, and slowly handed it to the little grey messenger, the being seemed to smile, though its mouth wasn't shaped properly for that. He let the badge sink into the grey, and pulled out a black steel box, that could be clipped on her belt. After a short grateful nod the messenger returned to wherever it came from.

Louise inspected the box, it could open from the top and allow her to retrieve 10 black steel tubes, what they were for was a mystery to Louise.

She shrugged, clipped the box to her belt, to the left of her buckle.

She walked in and gave a short wave to the old man, who was hunched over the table.

"oh hey you're here, I got something for you. See this, there called blood vials, hunters can use them to heal." He spoke like it was the next best gift from god.

Louise lifted an eyebrow, "really?" she grinned cockily "cause I already have some" she pulled out her own healing vials.

"huh, why didn't you say so in the first place, now I made these all for nothing. why didn't you bring any back, you can stockpile them here in case you need them later."

Louise shrugged "hey, these are a new invention, they're not exactly abundant."

He shrugged, and threw her a couple of items, leather strip, with 2 buckle's and little holsters allowing her to easily carry roughly 10 blood vials. The buckles went on her belt, and allowed her to keep the blood vials to the right, just near her dominant arm. The other object was a brass tank, an iron syringe strapped to the side of it, 2 clip's allowed the tank to be attached to her belt.

Thank you belt, you hold my equipment, you save my life by holding my medicine and you hold up my pants.

"what's the tank for" she asked, the old man was already back at his workbench, digging through the crap to find something.

He looked over to but returned to his digging "its for blood, I need blood to make you blood vials, use that tank to bring me some, any will do, even infected blood." He dug until he found a black wooden box. "aha! Fire paper, this stuff can literally set your weapon on fire, of course its volatile so you'll need a special container to keep it from combusting in your pocket." He looked over to Louise, noticing the black steel box on her belt. "and apparently you already have one, you work fast don't you pinky"

Louise was a little aggravated at being called 'pinky', but nodded nonetheless strapping the tank to the back of her belt, she walked over.

"stand still" he opened the box on her belt, and pulled out a tube, put the little rolled up piece of brownish red paper inside. The paper just stuck out barely a cm.

"here, when you want to use it just pull it out, and slap it onto your weapon of choice, it does work on guns, but if you wrap it around the base of your melee weapon of choice it should work just fine." He eyed the axe at Louise's hip "and by base I meant the base of the edge, don't set the hilt of that pretty little axe on fire." He ignored the tick in Louise's eye, and began filling the rest of the holster.

She took a calming breath and after he was done walked out, throwing a quick bye over her should she headed back to the living world.

* * *

Once there she decided to check inside before she started practicing her new weaponry.

"hey siesta, how are you." She spoke as she walked in, siesta was sitting by the fire, next to Jessica, munching on a piece of bread.

Her face lit up a little as she saw me. "you're still alive" she ran over and hugged me, resulting in Louise's face crushed into her chest. Louise pulled her face away "yeah, I can't die remember."

Siesta let go, "do you want something to eat?"

Louise shook her head "nah, maybe later, I'm going to go practice outside, I'm just checking in to let you know I'll be sleeping here later."

Siesta nodded, "good luck" and Louise went outside to practice.

* * *

 **so yeah, this chapter was a little shorter than the rest, but meh.**

 **So to those who are a little confused about the belt, ill describe everything on Louise's belt right now.**

 **1 to the outmost left is her pistol's holster, her whip-cane sheathe is rapier style and on top of the pistol holster, the blunderbuss holster is to the right of that, and the box of fire paper is to the right of the blunderbuss, then there's the buckle in the middle.**

 **Then right of the buckle is a holster for blood vials, to the right of that is the holster for Louise's axe, and then on the back of the belt is the blood tank.**


	8. Chapter 8

After spending a late evening practicing with her new weapons Louise was ready to face the next day.

Having finally gotten the whip form down was a blessing and a half, having gone out and tested it on some unsuspecting minions shortly after figuring out how to work it.

The hunter's axe was also very handy, despite looking clunky the weapon was surprisingly fast, and the two handed mode was even more useful, however not being able to use her gun quickly would be annoying.

The blunderbuss proved to be a little bit of a disappointment, the rate of fire was to slow to really use, and the pellets did do more damage but the pellets were much smaller and where in general bad at staggering, which was what she usually used it for.

And so after a good night sleep and a quick and small breakfast, (not that she felt hungry, perhaps hunters didn't need food?) Louise walked outside after a quick goodbye.

Moving on she went up to where she last fought the gravegiant moving past him and going up a big staircase to the right. She eventually came upon a gate, the thing was locked, damn. Off to a right a little was a small wooden plank board, the thing was strapped to a man's arm as a shield.

Of course the whole thing didn't seem to served him very well as a rusty looking sword was pierced through the shield, cutting into his arm and piercing his chest right in the heart.

She was about to walk away when she remembered her blood vials. Turning back around she pulled out the tank and syringe, there was a small hole near the head of the tank, just large enough for the painful looking syringe's needle.

She plunged the needle into his arm, and pulled back the plunger as far as she could, only managing to get about half the syringe filled. She stabbed him again lower on the arm, this time filling the syringe fully. She emptied the syringe in the tank, and noticed a small glass panel in the side of the tank fill up with blood, an indicator for how much blood was inside?

She filled the syringe several times more and emptied it in the tank, however only managing to get about half the tank full, either the man suffered from too much exsanguination Or more likely corpses sucked up all the blood, and the heart didn't pump causing blood cloth's to form.

"when did I learn so much about blood. I took lessons in metallic thaumaturgy, not the balance of humors in the body." Shrugging it off Louise moved on.

Going the other way, to the left of the gravegiant Louise came across 2 large grunt like things, one was holding some sort of tree trunk, the other a large heavy brick. They wore tattered robes and chains. Their bodies malformed and ridden with tumors.

Cautiously approaching she noted they had the same slow witted lack of perception their fellow infected had, standing practically 10 meters away from her, _facing her_ and still they hadn't noticed her.

She judged the with of the street she stood in now. Not the widest but enough to fight one of those beast's, hopefully she could kill it before it pushed her back enough, she did not want to fight a beast like that on a stairs, high-ground didn't mean shit when you slip and crack your skull on the pavement.

Steeling herself she fired a bullet into its head, even though it hit its eye, it barely bled.

None the less she managed to get its attention, quickly holstering her pistol and unfolding her axe.

She practiced this, though she wasn't as fast as the other hunter she was fast enough for now.

She lifted the axe behind her head, charging up for an overhead attack, just as the brick grunt walked within range and was about to start its own attack did Louise release her charge and smash her axe straight into its face managing to split it clean in two.

Blood clung to the now sharpened edge, she'd taken the time earlier to sharpen the blade, and she took a deep breath, regaining what little stamina she had lost.

Walking forwards she lifted the head of the axe just behind her shoulder, and ran forwards, the troll noticed her but couldn't act fast enough. As soon as Louise was in range she halted her charge, put her foot down and threw her axe forwards, though she didn't have the time to prepare for a strong attack she did manage to at least transfer some of the momentum of her charge into the axe just as it connected with the beast's face. The tumor filled face was splint in two just like his brother.

Where they brothers? They did look alike, then again that may have just been because of their transformation.

She took another few moments to catch her breath, then she was attracted to a something near the edge of the court she stood in now. It wasn't anything but she just _felt_ like something important was there.

She moved over noting several rather large crows lying dead around it.

She moved a little closer, the corpse of the crow jumped up and let out a shrill as it flew towards her, on broken wings apparently. Acting more on reflex than thought Louise swung her axe, barely managing to hit the crow before it could get close enough to do any damage.

She shortened her axe, and pulled out her whip cane, swapping it to its whip mode. She slashed at the small group of birds, a few jumped up and another slash pacified their cries, the others were apparently dead. Or just really dedicated to playing possum.

Confident that she wouldn't be attacked again, she strolled forwards, and noticed a corpse. Well more of a pile of bones, all the flesh had been picked off. However the thing that attracted her was the skull, a faint blue light shone behind its pecked out eye's. and the bone was suspiciously bleach white, cleaner than the other bone's, and lacked all of the peck marks found on other bones.

She picked it up and held it up to her face, imitating a famous philosopher she didn't know the name of.

What, just because she was a fine lady didn't mean she enjoyed reading weird poems by sissy men.

She looked in the skull's 'eye's'

-crush me- she heard, well knew, the form of communication felt the same as the one the messengers used, not really talking or even telepathy, she just _knew_.

Half shrugging internally, she crushed the frail skull (or had she gotten stronger?) a few wisps of white smoke came out. And a little information came into her mind –a stash of loot is contained behind the left most grave in the cathedral court.-

Well that was good to know.

She looked around, nothing else, well no exits except the entrance and the other side of the court she stood in.

The other side held another grave giant, this one held a massive iron ball on a chain.

"how about no."

She turned tail and ran (well jogged) back to the cathedral court, that graveyard was probably worth checking out.

Once in the court she noticed two things, one she had a - feeling- pulling her towards where the suspicious skull claimed was loot. And two she noticed an iron fence gate built into the wall, it certainly wasn't the door she initially came in with, and it wasn't the door she just came from either.

'how did I not notice that, I spent a whole fucking hour here practicing for crap's sake'

Deciding she'd check out the gate later she moved to where the feeling was pulling her, noticing that a small bag was stashed just behind the grave. She pulled out the leather satchel bag and untied the cord keeping it closed., gently pulling out the contents and laying it on the ground she checked out her new found loot. Another 3 bottles of red murky liquid. Not blood as it smelt to alcoholic and sweet.

The other contents where a small odd looking lamp, with a clip that allowed her to strap it to her belt.

Once more belt, thank you for carrying my weapons and holding my pants.

She strapped it to her belt, to the right of the tank on the back, turning it on as a test she saw the light fill out the dark shadows of the court, the lamp barely lit up a meter around her, not much but it would help if she was ever caught in the dark.

And the satchel itself, the leather carrying bag went perfectly across her beck, a diagonal strap holding it up. Allowing her to carry more than she could fit in her pockets or strap to her belt.

Cracking her neck twice, damn it was stiff.

She walked to the iron gate, the door was locked but with an old frail looking lock.

Taking a small step back she extended her axe and swung it like a sledge, splitting the lock in half.

Moving one she found herself looking at two tallman at the same time, and apparently both had noticed her.

She pulled back her axe, and just as the two walked in her range she swung, horizontally this time. Both where staggered and she followed the attack with an overhead swing, the blow missed the head of the right one but managed to cleave into its shoulder all the way down to its midriff.

Pulling out the axe was annoying but she managed to rip it free just before the other tallman could hit her, as soon as the head was unstuck she dashed to the right, the other tallman's cane missing her, she pulled back and swung her axe at him again, this time hitting him square in the chest, the blade once more lodging itself in the enemy but was still alive and was just about to take advantage of her closeness. she let go of it with her left hand and used to grab her cane, striking the final blow into its head with her cane in an awkward strike, nonetheless she managed to break its neck by hitting as hard as she could on its chin.

She'd have to remember that trick for later.

She wedged the blade clean, slightly grimacing at the gore splattered edge, she tried to clean the blood of using their coats but found leather was a bad absorbent for blood.

Stretching her back she felt the joint's pop, what was it with her body at the moment.

* * *

 **so yeah, new chapter, shoutout to my friend whom I spent all day playing video games with.**  
 **I used to think the hunter's axe was pretty clunky, and when I bought it later in the game I ended up agreeing with myself. however when I made a new character and picked it as a starting weapon just to see if I could learn to use it I found it's actually pretty badass when it isn't under upgraded.**

 **So yeah this chapter was done a bit faster than the others. I'm proud of myself for that, maybe from here on chapters will slowly start getting larger.**


	9. Chapter 9

Louise moved on, after a short trip through an alley and a dead crow later she ended in a on a dirt road, nearer to the outskirts of the town.

A wolf like creature stood across the street it was looking towards her and about to notice her. Louise Deciding to take the initiative ran forwards and stopped a few steps short of in front of it, swinging her axe it carved a gouge into its shoulder and then hit the ground.

The werewolf-beast was staggered and Louise capitalized on the moment of weakness, drawing back her two handed axe and then immediately throwing it back again, piercing the tip of her the axe's pole into its head.

Wait tip of the pole, had she been swinging around a halberd and been calling it a two handed axe all this time.

'did not notice that'

Walking on she noticed a man lying dead on the pavement, he wore the flak armor of the inquisitorial guard.

The outfit consisted of a undershirt and tights', then a set of chainmail with metal plates layered on top where flexibility wasn't necessary. The over it all was the standard uniform of the inquisitor guard, identical to a regular military guard, except for the red shoulder coloration instead of the dark blue coloration of the standard grunt, as well as an inquisitorial insignia sown into the decorative over shirt.

Was the inquisition near, perhaps they knew how to stop this plague, or at least be of some help.

That armor though could be of some use, she was slightly embarrassed as she stripped the man naked of his armor, and even more so when she had to change right there in the street, she put on her coat and hat afterwards, on top of the guard's armor.

After equipping her new armor she moved on, though she covered the naked and freshly dead man under a nearby banner that she had ripped off.

Then Louise moved on down the street eventually coming to the end, a small court that had two wolf-beast's in it. Louise unfolded her axe into its halberd form and ran forwards, swinging it down on a unsuspecting wolf-beast chopping his head clean off.

The other wolf-beast was of course opposed to getting the same done to him, with lightning speed it attacked Louise, jumping on top of her and knocking her off.

Crap none of her weapons were particularly effective at close range. The beast went for her throat but found a forearm in its way, nonetheless it was something to bite on its antiseptic bite unable to pierce the metal guard underneath the armor cloth.

Louise pushed him of her and rolled on top the beast grabbing it by it muzzle and reaching for her halberd.

she grabbed it near the head and pressed the sharp edge into the beast's throat. said beast began struggling fiercely, clawing at her arms and torso tearing fairly large gashes in the over shirt, pressing until she felt the bone split underneath her axe she didn't let up until the head rolled away.

Letting out a sign she stood up and did her best to remove the blood from her gloves, using the beast's odd fur.

She moved on, going into the open gate of the building, the inside was apparently a barracks, judging by the infected soldiers walking around the place the few that did still 'live' were quickly disposed of with a quick strike of her axe, its heavy weight and strong force carving straight through the chainmail they wore.

Eventually she reached the armory, she considered picking out a few weapons for herself but thought against it, though they were certainly crafted by a skilled blacksmith however did not offer nearly as much versatility as her own workshop crafted hunter gear gave, easily being able to switch from medium range to short range.

She did look around for a while, eventually coming upon the confiscated section, she did find something more useful here.

Poisoned throwing knives, from what the reports claimed the knives would be thrown into a target the serrated edge lodging itself firmly into the flesh. a chemical dust that was applied to the surface of the blade would then dissolve into the bloodstream and spread a lethal quick acting poison. However usually the poison required roughly three doses to work on a usual human, and the antidote was easily found. most households carrying it as the stuff was a low class panacea, helping against soreness, the cold, a plugged nose, and most regular poisons.

She shrugged and picked up set of knives, the blades holstered in a small leather rolled up strip that doubled as a sheath. She packed it up after counting the eleven knives and stuffed it into her satchel.

Moving on she walked out the back door, going through oddly empty streets she came up to the sight of a large crucified beast, a saber sword pierced into its chest held it up as the ropes that restrained the arms had since burned down.

Surrounding the beast's crucifix a whole crowd of infected people, some with torches and shields some with axes, pitchforks, muskets, spears, knives, pistols, scythe's.

Deciding to stick to regular protocol she threw a pebble at the front man's head, the former inhabitant of the town turned around, and began walking towards her at a rather brisk pace, she stood ready and as soon as it was within range slammed her axe down. On its head.

Then a roar was heard, mostly human if not for the ever so slight shrill sound. It appeared the musket man had noticed her, which should be impossible since the infected usually couldn't notice her until she was practically right in front of them. She noticed he was a little odd as his eye's had a purple glow in them.

Then the whole crowd turned towards her and began shuffling, half decayed face's, not-fur mask covered faces and features twisted into a mockery of some human emotion, all their eye's filed with recognition as they turned towards her.

Louise ran, turned tail and brought herself around the corner, so at least she wouldn't get shot at by the musket man.

She turned and readied her halberd, doing a wide horizontal swing as the first wave came to her managing to cleave several in half and kill most on contact, either they were weaker or she had just gotten stronger, which was a plausible theory since she had no real way of recording how strong the blood enhancements made her.

The second wave was mowed down like the first, she began back strafing, to give herself some time to regain stamina in-between waves.

Then finally nearly at the beginning of the street did she finally mow down the last of the mob.

Taking a moment to regain lost stamina she looked out towards the veritable river of blood and gore she left, to make things worse the street was ever so slightly tilted, so the blood was a literal river.

'yuck' she noted to herself as she began wading through the river back to the musket man. Once there she noted a few stragglers, but ran past them, shed deal with them after she killed the musket man, you know so she wouldn't get shot whilst fighting them.

She mowed it down easily, though she felt the feeling of blood echo's flowing into her a little stronger than usual.

Taking care of the other minions was folly.

She cracked her spine, she should probably get that checked out.

"damn I just mowed down nearly half a dozen infected civilians. Go hunter superpowers!"

She was just about to move on as she felt that same -feeling- she got whenever something useful was near.

The feeling guided her towards the sword impaled in the beast.

She pulled it, noting how easily it ripped free from flesh. Taking a moment to inspect the swords she became aware of a few of its peculiarities.

It was a saber, about the length of a bastard sword, the blade itself somewhat a little whitish in color, the handle carefully wrapped in a black ribbon and held close with a red decorative clip. Oddly enough there seemed to be some infection growing on the blade, taking the form of a blood red fur collar around where the guard was supposed to be, that also appeared to be missing, though considering the type of combat she was usually in blocking didn't seem to be something that she ended up needing much.

Any enemy capable of hitting her usually being too fast for her to hit first.

'-ah it feels good to be wielded by a skilled hand once more-' a sinister voice spoke in her head, hissing on his S's ever so slightly. She grasped the blade with her other hand, holding it in front of her to defend herself, the second her left hand closed around the blade underneath her right hand she felt a connection form with the blade, an energy not unlike magic flowing through the blade, into one hand through her and back into the blade through her other hand. Though she couldn't exactly note which side the energy went in and which side it went out.

"who's there" she spoke aloud, not afraid but nervous at someone sneaking up on her.

'-this I the blade you now hold-' Louise lifted her eyebrow.

"a living blade, the nearest known one is nearly a week's travel away, and even then it is described as a massive broadsword, not a saber"

She could almost _feel_ the blade smile '-well you see I used to be quite the piece of junk before the infection got to me, my memory had always been bad and now after the infection it's even worse as I barely remember anything before this accursed plague spread to me.-'

"you are infected? You don't exactly fit the description, fur none withstanding."

'-no I do not, however i no longer feed upon magic as I once had but now on the blood of the foes my master fights-'

"magic, you were an enchanted sword before?"

A nod was felt, god that feels weird '-yes I was, I held the ability to absorb magic from spells, allowing a sufficiently skilled swordsman to counter spells, though most humans do not have the skill needed. Now however I feed upon the blood of your enemies, and absorb their life force to heal you, assuming you create a proper connection between us, like you do now by holding me with both hands.-'

Louise nodded and oddly enough she felt as if the blade could see her do so. "you referred to me as your master."

The blade nodded again, ugh '-yes originally I was told only to let someone who was pure of mind hold me, however that got boring, and more often than note those 'pure of mind' were usually horrible swordsmen.

Not to mention I got tired of them groveling before me, at least in my glory years. Eventually I changed my policy that I would only be wielded by any swordsmen who killed my previous holder, those where fun time's.

after a while I fell into the hands of one of the best swordsmen in the world, he was however quite the sadist, and led a veritable army of bandits, after he was felled by a storm of arrows from afar I was lost, nobody who knew of my master's legend wanted to do anything with me, and eventually I fell into decay, nothing but a rusting piece of shit, made by some novice blacksmith on a lazy day.

I spent a few decades going from shop to shop, wielded by any cutthroat who decided they wanted to try their hand's at a bastard blade.

Then the plague came, the exact details of my history were lost to me as I was infected, and my very nature was altered, eventually I found myself stabbed into a beast that just plain wouldn't die, around the same time the inquisition made their feeble attempt at cleansing this town.

I drained that beast dry, but they were afraid It would awaken if I was removed, so they left me.  
And now after all this time I fall into your presumably capable hands.-'

He shrugged, ok so Louise was getting used to that _really_ weird feeling now. "I see, so what's your name"

He mulled it over '- it used to be Derflinger, however that is no longer appropriate as I am a sword smithed anew, Call me Chikage.-'

-line-

 **So yeah, new chapter, I feel like I'm going to open every author's note from now on with a "So yeah"**

 **Anyway I always felt putting Derflinger was usually overused, especially if a character already fought without a sword.**

 **However the idea of Derflinger being transformed into a semi-vicious blood draining sword appealed to me. I ended up making him friendlier and more casual than I intended but this is fine too.**

 **So yeah a new nugget of knowledge for you people. the health regain system Is a little different here, as Louise can only use it to heal small wounds, Chikage offers a better alternative and can replace the cane whip which has been made mostly obsolete by the hunters axe, since Chikage can match the hunters axe in raw damage output, and is a little faster, but has less range and is less effective against enemies with thick bones, since the hunters axe acts a bit like a sledgehammer, in terms of how the weapon impacts with the enemy, crushing bone where it can't cut.**

 **The Chikage can cleave through bone and flesh like a hot knife through butter, however its damage output is lowered a rather large amount when faced with an enemy that has skin or bones that can stop Chikage's edge.**

 **So yeah the hunters axe has more reach, and can both cut and break through flesh and bone, whereas the Chikage can basically mow through entire hordes of grunts, but loses a fair bit of its effectiveness against bosses and mini-bosses who are usually quite a bit sturdier.**

 **I also just realized I have been using the word cane whip where I actually mean the threaded cane. But it would be a pain to go back and change everything.**


	10. Chapter 10

Louise walked on through the city, a beastly scream was heard a few hundred meters ahead.

Louise drew Chikage and held it before her in two hands, she moved on cautiously eventually coming to another mob of plague infected citizens, a few tallmen where scattered between them, one of which had a very wide brimmed hat.

Like the last mob there was a musket man with glowing eyes, she didn't so much mind the fact that he could 'aggro' the whole mob to on her, however unlike last time she didn't have a chokepoint around the corner, and would be forced to fight this mob whilst being shot at by the musket man.

Deciding to just go for him first and deal with the group afterwards she sprinted past the civilians and tallmen aggro'ing them anyway, she swung Chikage in a horizontal slash and the musket man's head flew through the air, Louise then stopped and turned, the man in front of her 'lead' the group, another tallman the one with the floppy hat, he pulled a blunderbuss, nearly identical to the hunter's blunderbuss and fired, Louise barely managed to dodge and sliced of his arm with Chikage, then the floppy brimmed hat wearing head flew through the air after it.

From there it was a simple task to mow down the rest of the mob, the tallmen gave her more trouble than usual as she lacked the longer range that the hunter's axe gave her, but the knife-through-butter sharpness as well as the faster attack speed was well worth it, so instead she lured them into an attack, side or back stepped and struck them with Chikage, killing them in a single shot usually.

Then after mowing down the group she moved on, eventually she came to another church, larger than the chapel the other's where at, this one being a right and proper church she heard murmurs from the upper floor. "hey!" no response,

She clicked tongue and moved inside, the first floor was large, with a high ceiling and several supportive pillars, all the pews had been moved to the side to the room stacked together and partially crushed.

In the distance she saw something move, a large dog like creature.

The beast noticed her, and the doors shut behind her as if by magic, shit. it pulled its weight on its hind legs and leaped towards her. Louise ran to the right and managed to get out of its jump before it hit her. She pulled out Chikage and slashed at its hind calf, the skin was rather sturdy and offered some resistance, the muscle did not however the blade got stuck on the bone, barely chipping it.

She pulled out and drew her axe, instantly lengthening it into its halberd form. The beast attempted to stike her but missed, she took a closer look at the horrifying beast, body shaped like an emanciated dog its head showed a muzzle, however two massive flaps of cut off skin where attached to its neck and head, draping over the upper half of its face and front legs.

she swung her axe, deciding to not risk it, the blade hit the beast on the head and staggered it however didn't even chip it. She'd need to put more force into the blade then.

She strafed behind it, charged up another attack intended for its leg.

The beast turned and she swung, hitting its head instead, she felt a dent in the bone but not much else.

Then it struck, she managed to dodge but the beast's attack but it carved a nasty gash in her arm, deciding to conserve on blood vials she switched to Chikage and began slicing at its ribs, the cuts didn't breach bone but the health stealing effect the blade gave her did help.

'-partner you've been poisoned, smells like the same stuff they use on those poison knives you've got in your satchel-'

Poison? The beast had poisonous claws, she'd have to finish this quickly and hope the could tough out the poison until her body eliminated it.

She switched to her halberd once more, and dodged another attack, before swinging another charged attack into its face, it staggered this time and louise felt an odd calling -use your instincts- she sheathed her weapon as quick as she could and pulled her hand back, punching it wrist deep into the beast's throat, grasping something and ripping it out.

What, was, that. She didn't know she could do that.

No time to think the beast attacked again, the wound on its neck not bleeding at all.

She back stepped and managed to avoid the attack by the skin of her teeth. Countering with another smash of her halberd she never anticipated a follow up attack.

The claws practically tore her to shreds, though she managed to live long enough for Chikage to say '-well, it was short and fun fighting with you-'

Another strike blackened her senses.

-line-

She awoke in the hunters dream, still grasping Chikage here in the hunters dream his voice seemed much more audible "what the hell, I thought you just died like a second ago"

She held the blade up and looked at it. "I have, however I am obligated to wipe out this infection, and dying would hinder my progress towards this goal greatly." She spoke dryly, almost jokingly.

"I err, never mind I don't even care anymore"

She chuckled and walked over to the plain doll, "could you please reinforce my body and spirit once more" she knelt as she spoke this.

The doll nodded and wordlessly took Louise's hand as she performed the short ritual, Louise felt invigorated, and _much_ stronger after being reinforced by the rather large amount of blood echoes she had managed to gather after killing 2 large groups of infected.

Louise Left and trekked back to the beast that killed her

-line—

This time Louise fared better, she smashed her axe into its head the second it came near, she felt the steel-like bone splinter, though not nearly enough to kill it.

It staggered, and Louise pulled her axe back, horizontally, charging her attack she finally swung the axe in a double spin, splintering then crush its upper ribs.

This went on for a short while, Louise taking and giving blows, healing herself with Chikage whenever she had to.

Then it let out a shrill scream, a familiar sound of several tortured people screaming in terror heard under its voice.

Now it's movement's where more aggressive, though it took a while Louise finally managed to whittle down its body even more.

It let out another shriek, this time with terror in its voice, not just the undertone's of the human screams heard with the voice of every human.

It stood up straight, and Louise prepared another powered trike at it's legs, then her vision blocked by a brown gas, excreted from the beast's pore's.

Poison flooded her system, she slowly lost feeling in her body, as she began dying off part by part her last thoughts were 'oh come on there's no way I can dodge that'.

-line-

As it turns out she _could_ dodge the attack, problem was she couldn't deal any damage to it without her system being flooded with poison. No matter how long she waited the beast's poison cloak never let up.

"I need an antidote against this"

She went up to Gehrmans workshop, and asked him "go find some cold blood dew, you can trade that with the messengers for something, like an antidote or something.

Letting out a sign louise followed the old man's advice and went back into the world, finding blood dew was easier than expected, killing what guarded it was also easy, although it had ridiculous range with that overly large axe it wielded. Having to resort to a Chikage as well as a blood vial to see her through that fight she eventually claimed its live, and the blood dew it guarded, the same -sense- she had guided her to its corpse, and she found a gem of crystalized blood imbedded it its torso.

She decided to explore some more, a few tallmen were dealt with quickly, and she managed to get her hands on a apothecary's set.

Bringing the briefcase back to the hunters dream was a pain, you ever try climbing slippery stairs with a big bulky briefcase filled with delicate vials and other such glass objects.

-line-

She eventually got the briefcase there, and with Gehrman's help managed to loot a few antidotes. However those where made kind of redundant by the plague-doctors like mask she bought from the messengers.

Now she was ready to face that beast. Finaly.

-line-

She took on the beast again, all things considered it wasn't that hard, dodging was a close encounter sometimes, and the poisonous claws were _really_ annoying, but since the poison cloak didn't effect me anymore I could pretty much wail on his already weakened body. Crushing his skull felt _very_ satisfying.

* * *

 **okay (we shall break the 'so yeah' chains) I'm not really happy with this chapter and it WILL be revised, however I didn't want to write but I needed to make my personal deadline because if I do not, then I will start breaking deadlines more often wich leads to me abandoning this story because I let 'the ball stop rolling'. and as a result this chapter was somewhat incomplete, the general story wont change much but I feel like I need to go into more detail about the fight scene's, so tomorrow I will either write a new chapter and just revise this chapter later or I'll just revise this chapter and re-upload it tomorrow.**

 **EDIT:**

 **so yeah, I reviewed this chapter and after considering it for a while there's not much I could change without making the fights repetitive. so yeah, I don't have a new chapter for you folk's. and I've decided to take a little break and slow down. so ill try and have a chapter for you every Friday, though possibly more. don't count on it though.**

 **I also really want to re-watch the hunchback of Notre dame.**


	11. Chapter 11

Louise moved on after killing the beast, taking a moment to rest she came up to a staircase, at the top of witch was a door.

She tried to open the door, *click* damn locked, she was about to turn and leave just as she heard a whisper.

She pressed her ear to the door, more whispers, she knocked on the door twice. for a short while nothing happened and Louise felt stupid.

"who's out there" a nervous but manly voice called out.

Taking a moment to focus her thoughts she answered "I am Louise de la Vallière, third daughter of Karin de heavy wind and current self-appointed hunter of the plague that roams this town."

Another few moments of nervous shuffle, the door opened a face peeking between the crack.

Then it opened fully, she saw at least a dozen people sitting around, men, women, children and a few elderly. The man who opened the door spoke again, a little bafflement in his voice " _You_ are the hunter that's trying to drive the beast's away?" he was obviously skeptical.

It was the height wasn't it.

She lifted her head, "whether or not you believe me I am the one who killed the beast below and many others. And I will continue to do so until this plague finally ends." Pride in her voice she spoke with conviction.

A short plan formed in her head.

"now, how many of you are there, and how much food do you have."

He looked suspicious, eying the blade at her hip. "there are 12 of us here, myself included, and about enough food to feed us for another week at most."

"are there any nobles with you?" she asked.

He shook his head, "no, at least not anymore the plague does something to magic, stops mages from casting it."

Louise was a bit troubled by the news, at least that would explain why mage's hadn't simply torched this plague of monsters like the previous black plague. "I know a safe place, a chapel a few streets away, it should be easier to defend, and the incense the monk burns there wards of the beasts, they can't stand the scent."

"this place is safe too, although I suppose you do have a point, now that the beast below is gone we are free to leave, likewise however the infected outside are free to enter now." he looked a bit uncomfortable. "but how will we get there with such a large group, not to mention we can't simply leave the food behind."

Louise nodded and mulled it over for a few moments. "very well, I will escort you there, the way should be mostly cleared, however I will take care of any beasts that attack us."

She turned to the group and in her most authoritive voice she called out. "people, pack your things, we are moving to a safer place, bring all the food you can carry, we leave as soon as we can."

The nervous and scared group instantly began packing, despite the fact that their orders came from a 144cm tall teenager.

With pink hair.

She turned to the 'leader' of the group, "I have yet to learn your name."

He was a bit surprised how easily she could order his group around, or was it how easily his group took orders without debate. He grinned apologetically, "ah goodness I have forgotten to introduce myself. I am Sabastian of Abria, former blacksmith of the workshop."

She nodded "well then Sabastian, are there any weapons here" he nodded

"yes a few spears"

"very well, Sabastian pick five of your strongest men and give them spears, I don't expect your group will have to do any fighting, but a few spearmen should be able to hold off the infected long enough for me to get there."

He nodded and walked across the room talking to a few men, two of which wore the blue colors of the local guard.

-line-

Finally the group was done, and they moved on to the chapel, on the way there one or two stragglers where encountered and taken care of with a single swipe of Chikage. proving to the group she really was the a hunter, and not some little _midget_ pretending to be some big shot.

Eventually they got there, she knocked on the door.

The door opened, then swung open as Siesta bound out and hugged Louise, inadvertently pressing her bosom to the pink haired girls face.

Louise embraced the dark haired maid and finally siesta let go of the hug, then the maid noticed the group behind her.

"uhm, Louise I don't think we can feed that many mouths."

Louise nodded, "I know, don't worry siesta, they brought some of their own food and ill help out by escorting a few scavenging groups to gather food."

"well, uh ok if you say so."

The group went in, and Louise decided to join for dinner considering the hour was getting pretty late.

-line-

The next morning she went out to gather some things she would need.

A few trips to a nearby blacksmith's shop, now there was a small smithy in the courtyard of the chapel.

She peeked inside, "Sabastian! I need you outside for a minute, and bring the spears."

A few minutes later the two of them stood near the smithy. "I need you to attach guards to the base of the spear's edge." Essentially turning it into a short sword mounted on a stick. "the infected can take a lot more damage before succumbing, if you impale them to deep on the spear your weapon will get stuck, and they won't be that hindered. If you ad guards however then you prevent the blade from sinking in too deep not to mention you can push the infected away."

After Sabastian was done Louise called out a few of the volunteers, and did her best to train them in spear use. She herself hadn't any experience with it however her hunter's instinct's gave her plenty of knowledge to at least train a basic spearman.

Eventually by noon training was done, considering there wasn't much to it, a few exercised they would have to do every day in order to get into better shape. which they already had for the most part and then just a quick lesson on how to properly use a spear.

Then Louise explained her plan, to take the group, she would do most of the fighting, while they gathered a few more supplies, at least enough to feed them for a month, should anything happen.

And so they started their trip, the first trip yielded some better armor for the squad, and a few days' worth of food.

They slept and the next day went out again.

This day they made their deadline, and seeing as the way back was mostly cleared and the excursion group had enough experience to handle a few stragglers, Louise sent them home alone while she went on to explore some more, hoping to get to town hall to see if there was anything of use there.

The journey was slow, the groups grew larger and greater in frequency as she went closer to center of town. Having to stop a few times to rest, and even use three healing vials bringing her down to seven.

Just outside town hall was one of the biggest groups she's ever seen.

Nonetheless she sprinted through taking out the few musket men that stood on elevated platforms.

Then she rushed back, using her entrance street as a choke point it was a simple deal of taking them down row by row, back strafing whenever she had to regain stamina.

Louise having now gained a _Much_ greater amount of strength and stamina after defeating and empowering herself with the blood echoes of previous monsters.

Eventually after being pushed back nearly all the way to the point where she split off from the group she managed to kill the last row.

Now she stood at the bottom of a literal river of blood, awesome.

She trudged through the street filled with rotten flesh and fresh blood.

Eventually she came to the entrance of the city hall.

Damn locked, she looked around the building a few times, checking for alternate entrances, eventually resorting to climbing the ivy and breaking through the glass door, the shards bouncing of her chainmail.

She explored the upper floor, finding nothing of interest, except a few rooms for the servants and visiting nobility.

The ground floor proved much more interesting, a woman sat in a chair, a musket leaning against her she faced the entrance.

Louise took a moment to inspect the woman, short cropped pink hair, bags under her eye's and her skin too pale. Then louise recognized the face

"mother" she spoke breathlessly. Reaching for the older woman's shoulder.

She short haired woman jumped awake, eyes wide in terror. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes, "Louise" she spoke just as breathless as Louise. Karin de la Vallière threw her hands around her daughter's body, hugging her face into Louise's chest crying her eyes out.

The heard muttering, but Louise ignored it, embracing her mother comforting the distraught woman as best as she could.

She'd never seen her mother like this, Louise had never seen Karin so _vulnerable_ , always did she wear her 'rule of steel' plain on her face, stern eyes that seemed to constantly judge you.

"mother what happened?"

The crying woman calmed her distraught tears and looked up at Louise with the saddest eyes she had ever seen. "dead, their all dead, your father, your sisters." The woman continued crying like it had all just happened, snot and tears running down her face as she cried like every bad thing in her life had come bursting out just at this moment.

 **-line—**

 **Well I didn't want to end the chapter so soon, but I couldn't make it any longer without screwing up the ending.**

 **So yeah, if you're wondering about Karin's short hair that's for next chapter.**

 **Also take note this town is fairly small, and unlike the game the regular 'zombies' don't get stronger, as such although louse will have trouble fighting bosses, which will get stronger as she levels up, but the minions stay at the same strength, meaning Louise can plow through larger and larger groups of them.**

 **I'm probably going to kill her off at some point when she takes on a group** _ **too**_ **large. And I'm not sure what to do next chapter, at least for the second half. And I'm kind of worried ill screw it up as I'm not good at emotion's and stuff, however there's a first time for everything and I'll have to learn to write them someday, so why not now.**

 **So yeah I found a few writing exercises online which I'm going to try, though I don't think it will help my writing improve much.**

 **Anyway on one hand I want to kill Karin off to just for the sake of it, as well as character development for Louise, but on the other hand I want to keep her around as a regular character.**

 **I'm probably going to do the latter but tell me your thoughts in the review section.**


	12. Chapter 12

Sister was dead, Eleonore and Cattleya where dead. How.

"what happened mother" Louise asked stroking her mother's soft and now short cut hair as the near hysterical woman cried into her daughters chest.

Eventually the elder Vallière composed herself and spoke, her voice low and shaken, "after the plague spread to the academy I was sent to lead a squadron of guards to secure the academy, I took Eleonore and Cattleya with me instead of leaving them home where they could be attacked easily you're father been sent to fight elsewhere. On the road to this town the squadron was attacked by a giant beast, it did something to the air, I couldn't use any magic. It killed my daughters and defeated most of the guard, me and a few others got out however they fell prey to the monsters that live in this town, I managed to lock myself in here before the crowd of monsters broke through"

Louise nodded and hugged her mother once more, it was odd that the stern cold-hearted woman she had for a mother had somehow been defeated like this.

"what happened to your hair mother" she asked, the long hair being the only thing Louise knew for certain her mother valued.

Karin dried her eyes, and touched a hand to her now buzz cut hair. "I killed a monster with a rapier however some weird gunk got in my hair, It felt disgusting, worse than anything I ever felt before. It wouldn't wash out, so I irrationally shaved my hair off to get it away from me. its grown back a little but it'll be a while before I get it back fully."

Louise stood up straight, "can you walk mother," the strong voice surprised Karin and she nodded, "good, there's a cathedral roughly an hours walk away from here. We'll be safe there"

Karin's eyes widen "no Louise you'll be killed, the streets are littered with plagued beasts."

Louise grinned a cocky grin, the same one Karin often wore during her own childhood as a lower noble. "don't worry mother, I've killed bigger and scarier beasts than whatever could wait outside, I'm a workshop hunter now."

Her mother still looked nervous "but Louise you-" "shush mother, trust me please." Karin swallowed her stomach sick from nervousness and nodded.

Louise helped her mother up and towards the exit, she noted her mother didn't have her wand.

They removed the barricade on the entrance and just before they left Louise turned to her mother "mother if anything happens don't worry about me, just run straight back here ok."

"but Louise-" "please mother" once more Karin couldn't help but nod in compliance"

the two stepped on, Karin wide-eyed at seeing the lake of carnage lying in the town square.

Nonetheless the two carried on, eventually making it to the cathedral, there was a little snatch in the plan though.

The cathedral was surrounded by tall gangly looking things, each carrying a burlap sack on their back.

"mother stay here, and run away if anything comes for you" Karin was deathly pale, the sight of the burlap carrying things inspired more horror in her than anything else. She didn't register Louise's words and didn't notice until Louise was already near the group of beasts.

Louise simply unsheathed her saber and struck at the first one, ok so the Chikage was strong enough to break through the bag carrying things bones, but with some resistance. She could work with this.

Another strike, this one splitting the being from shoulder to pelvis.

She jumped back, half to regain stamina and half to dodge the inevitable attack from its comrades.

She wasn't disappointed when the being to the left of her swung its burlap sack like a flail. Louise jumped forwards again and lopped its head off with a two handed slash from her Chikage.

The being to the right of her swung to but missed by a few inches, Louise instantly countered by another swing, unable to reach the head properly Louise swung at its ribcage gouging a nasty carve horizontally across its stomach.

The being staggered and Louise capitalized by jumping forwards and thrusting her blade into its head.

Then she heard a telltale sound heavy footsteps behind her. she managed to turn and dodge just as a massive axe struck down where she just stood. She heard her mother grasp a gravegiant had apparently snuck up on her after emerging from a close by alley.

She sheathed her Chikage and pulled out her hunters axe, instantly pulling it into its halberd state.

The grave giant swung again Louise dodged just next to its leg, managing to barely avoid the horizontal swing. She turned and swung her halberd at its legs, the heavy weapon cracking though the bones easily.

The gravegiant sunk to its knees and Louise used up the last of her stamina to smash its head with her axe.

She lowered her weapon and used the time to regain her stamina, she then turned to her mother the woman's eyes wide with surprise.

Louise grinned a very Karin-esque grin and spoke "come mother, the entrance is right through this courtyard.

The woman nodded and walked up to Louise and surprising Louise as she hugged the smaller pinkette.

"mother wha-" "Louise I was so afraid you were going to get killed, and I'm so proud you've grown so strong" the woman smiled and seemed half in tears at the same time.

Louise embraced her mother for a few moments, reveling in the hug as warm as cattleya, but eventually managed to summon up the willpower necessary to remove herself. "come mother, the cathedral entrance is a few steps away, let's go before monsters come."

Karin nodded and was lead inside the cathedral by Louise, whom promptly introduced her mother to nearly everyone, (though most had to introduce themselves, as Louise barely knew their names in the first place)

When they were finaly done the men decided to trow a small party, that things where finaly looking up, the girls created a large meal, though not enough to put a serious dent in their now rather large food supply. Alcohol was also served, louise didn't imbibe in it though her mother had a few glasses of wine, chatting with an elderly woman louise didn't recognize.

A man had appearently taken his flute with him when he came here and then music was added to the party.

The festiveties luckily didn't attrackt the monsters, as louise was afraid the sound of the flute and song would attract monsters and give them enough curiosity to enter despite the incense.

Louise joined the festivities, singing along the few songs she knew, and armwrestling with the largest man in the group, much to everyones surprise managing to beat him easily. "hah, I can lift an axe nearly as heavy as me and use it to shatter an entire mans ribcage with a single blow, how weak were you expecting me to be!" she spoke boiseriously getting sucked up in the party.

Eventually it quieted down, earlier than usual as people still wanted to sleep, but coulnt simply leave the party, leaving only a few of the men and woman forming groups eating and drinking alittle and chatting quitly.

Louise joined her mother and the rest of the night was spent talking with her mother, trading stories and grieving Cattleya and Eleonore.

Eventually night came and everyone fell asleep, Karin clutching Louise tightly in her arms. Louise reveling in the warmth and love her mother rarely showed her.

When morning came it was time for Louise to move on, she felt she'd have stumbled on to this mysterious "source" already if it was in this town, so instead she took the horse siesta originally used to get to the academy, and left for the capital of Tristian, after a sad goodbye and (regretfully) leaving her mother pale with worry Louise left for the capital.

The travel took nearly a whole day and Louise ended up having to stop to kill a pack of beasts on the road more often than not.

Nonetheless she eventually made it to capital, the main gate was closed however there was a rather large ladder standing against the wall next to it, almost like someone had besieged the city.

Once Louise had moved her supply of food from the horse saddle to her backpack, and then set the horse to roam free on the nearby fields she climbed the ladder.

Once on top she was struck by a rather horrifying sight, an ocean of blood, the streets holding a river of red. The blood high enough to reach her waist if she stood at ground level.

 **-line-**

 **I've kind of lost interest with this so I'm going to wrap this story up sooner than I originally intended, this chapter was a few hundred words shorter than I wanted. But I wanted to end on a bit of a cliffhanger and there was no way for me to extend it anymore.**


	13. Chapter 13

A literal ocean of blood

 _What the fuck! Like seriously!_

Well look at it from the bright side, if the plague had a source, good chance it was here.

Taking a closer look she noted the royal palace seemed mostly unharmed by the apocalypse, could there be survivors? Then again the fleshy mass growing around the central tower didn't exactly encourage her.

Clearing her mind she moved on, trying to ignore the thick stench of blood on the wind.

The town was empty, everything of use had been taken or destroyed she could only travel by hopping from roof to roof. hoping she could make the jump and not end up floating in a river of blood.

There was an upside to traveling on the roofs: no beasts, if the town had any in the first place (and considering the new pavement that was very likely) they didn't come up to the roofs allowing Louise to make the trip towards the palace easily, getting in was a little more difficult, in the end she ended up leaping the fence and landing on the ground. Thank Brimir she didn't break her leg.

She moved towards the courtyard, and noticed another lamp which was promptly lit.

She moved on and into the entrance hall, empty as the town. The grand ball hall however held something much _much_ more horrific.

Louise eye's widened once she saw what was standing in the middle of the hall.

All obstructions had been removed from the hall, the decorative chandelier was lit like any other day and the room was clean if not for the black, manic, writing scribbled on the walls.

In the middle of the hall however stood a being, a girl.

"Henrietta!" the vaguely purple haired princess of tristania turned her hollow gaze towards her former friend, the second Louise registered in her sight the gaze regained some sharpness, some manic feeling deep inside Henrietta's tortured soul.

She'd obviously been infected, Louise gulped and Henrietta started laughing, a cackling broken sound not unalike a mad witch.

The madwoman charged Louise before she could react, her arms turned red with large vicious claws and she pierced her hand through Louise's stomach. The pinkette looked into her former friends eyes, seeing only madness and the plague that now infected her.

The arm was painfully removed from her abdomen, louise's eyes cloud with tears of pain and sadness, the arm was once more pierced through Louise's body going straight through her ribcage, purposefully missing her heart.

Henrietta pulled and thrust again, this time killing Louise, the princess's eyes turned dull again and the last thing Louise saw was Henrietta walking back to where she originally stood. Her movement no longer snappish and spider-like but slouched and numbed.

-line—

Louise woke up in the hunters dream and let herself fall to the ground, sobbing in a fetal position, snot plugging her nose, tears leaking freely.

She vaguely registered the sound of footsteps, and a cold wooden hand placing itself on her shoulder comfortingly.

-line—

She didn't know how long she was there crying, eventually she managed to pull herself together, only to break apart immediately afterwards, was it truly Henrietta's transformation into this monster that caused this, perhaps it was the fact that what little friends she had were now dead, and the fact that the only sisters she'd ever have were dead.

She clutched the plain doll, crying her heart out soiling the doll's fine clothing with tears and snot.

Eventually she managed to pull herself together again, this time holding up. Still a little shaken up she let the doll reinforce her, and then spent a few minutes talking with the doll, the topic she didn't even register. Something inane, enough to distract her from her grief.

Eventually she manned up so to say and decided Henrietta would have wanted Louise to finish this and end it all.

-line—

Shed made the same trip, from the lamp to the grand chamber, gotten killed within 10 seconds.

Then shed done the trip again

And again

And again

It went on like this for Brimir-knows how long. It seemed impossible, henrietta was to strong, to fast, and when it looked like louise finaly thought shed done some sort of damage henrietta entered some sort of rage mode, she moved faster, her attacks stronger than ever. And worst of all she began using magic, not of the founder but some vile mockery. tentacle's from a void reaching to grab her, a shower of nearly unforgeable magic missiles, a grenade of black energy that crushed her every bone if it so much as nicked her.

Was it really worth it, the world was probably dead by now, and there's no use.

"good hunter… you must go on, if you fail then everything is truly lost."

Louise grit her teeth and tried again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And on and on and on and on.

Eventually she managed it, plunging Chikage into Henrietta's chest for the hundredth, the thousandth time. This time Henrietta didn't get up, she didn't launch another surprise attack, she didn't impale Louise through the stomach with blood stained claws.

She just lied there and remained dead.

Louise smiled, began laughing, and eventually ended up cackling madly, relief? Sadness? Had she finally cracked, it didn't matter anymore, it was all done. The plague was gone she finished this.

A pale presence made itself known before her, day instantly turned to night, a large beast stood there, its appearance both majestic and reviling, ribs shown, androgynous build mixed between man and animal, its face indescribable with mere words.

It reached for Louise just as it was incinerated nearly completely.

-line—

"louiiiise! Wake up." The voice of Cattleya sounded out.

Louise's eyes shocked open, she jumped up, was it all a dream?

She looked down at herself, she didn't wear her usual night gown, instead she wore the chainmail and blood-stained jacket she'd worn as a hunter. The scent of the royal blood still fresh on her.

Her belt weighted with her weaponry.

Her mother bust through the door, looking haggard and spooked.

"louise you're still alive" she muttered as she slowly embraced louise, staining her own fine dress with blood.

"mother… do you remember?" she asked

"I do" her mother returned.

- **line—**

 **And that's a wrap, I started losing interest and motivation to write this story and I wanted to wrap this up before I completely abandoned it. The ending is kind of shabby, and I didn't want to write a sad ending. likewise sorry if the chapter is a little shabby, I'm not very good at writing emotional things.**

 **Well that's it for this, as much as I liked writing this the story ends here, I hope to see a lot more interesting bloodborne/zero no tsukaima fanfiction in the future, but the 'market' is a little small right now.**

 **Good luck, I'm off to write the second chapter of my Evolve/Infinite stratos crossover that a friend challenged me to do. if it sounds like an interesting idea go check it out on my account, it's called 'Powerized'**


End file.
